Measuring the Performance of Industrial Salespersons Douglas N Behrman, Florida State Unwers@ Wllham D Perreault, Jr , Unwerslty of North Carolma Sales force pet$ormance 1s a crrttcal concern of most mdustnalfirms, yet m thrs area of research there are d$tkultles m measurrng salespersons perfbrmance issues relevant to measurrng the performance of mdustrlal salespersons are reviewed A self-report perjormance scale developed and evaluated based on the responses of 200 salespersons and 42 managers zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGF fro m five major mdustnalfirms 1s presented The sales force and its performance are cntlcal to the success of almost every mdustnal firm, and it 1sof httle surpnse that marketing researchers and managers alike have studied salespersons, the sales process, and exchange mteractlons to provide insights on how to make sales managers and the sales force more effective These efforts have been useful, yet there 1s little doubt that research progress m the area of personal selling has been hindered by the conceptual and methodological problems of measunng salesperson performance [3,5,6,7,8, 15, 16, 19,20,25] Measuring Salesperson Performance Quantitative Measures It is compelling to rely on quantitative company data (such as dollar or unit sales or contnbutlon to profit over some time penod) as a logical cntenon measure of salesperson performance, moreover, these measures have been widely used m past research Yet there can be problems with quantitative measures For example, Forrester [lo] has persuasively described the dynamics of mdustnal markets, and how this volatlhty 1s reflected m dramatic swmgs m sales volume inequality across different sales temtones, product lines, or customer accounts often exist [23] Thus sometimes quan- titative company data that appear to be obJective may suggest differences m performance among salespersons that may be attnbutable to factors beyond the control of the mdlvldual Such uncontrollable factors can Address correspondence to William D Perreault, Jr ) College of Busmess Admmrstra- non, Umverslty of North Carolrna, Chapel HI& NC 27.514 Journal of Buslne\s Research 10, 355-370 ( 1982) 0 El\evler Saence Publchlng Co Inc 1982 52 Vanderbilt Ave New York NY 10017 355 0148.2963/82/030355- 16$2 75